Millions of pounds raised from the Clean Air Zone will be used to pay for better buses in certain parts of Bristol. From April, new and improved routes will start running in some areas across the city, as part of an upcoming deal with bus companies.
Bristol City Council is planning to spend £4.7 million over the next three years to support unprofitable bus routes in areas where people rely on them. These will include neighbourhoods without any existing bus services, and potentially a new circular route avoiding the city centre.
An update on the plans was given to the transport policy committee on Thursday, October 24. A task force of councillors is exploring how best to spend some of the income from the Clean Air Zone, and has met five times since forming to thrash out what areas should get priority.
Leading the task group is Labour Councillor Tim Rippington, who said: “On Wednesday this week we met with four of the main bus operators in the city to ensure they were aware of our objectives and timetable. All were happy that they would be able to respond to the tender process within the timetable we’ve laid out for them, so that’s good news.”
The money will prioritise routes through areas currently without any bus service and poorer parts of Bristol, as well as connecting popular destinations like hospitals, schools or stations. Routes running through a liveable neighbourhood will also get priority — the first liveable neighbourhood is being installed in east Bristol, with another planned for the south of the city.
Orbital routes will also be considered. These circular services could run around the city, rather than routes that go into the city centre and back out to the suburbs — although bus companies predict they would “not be profitable at any time in the near future”, Cllr Rippington said. Night buses could also get a boost, and the group has asked every councillor for gaps in services in their area.
He added: “These are the parameters we will look at when determining which services we need to put out to tender. Obviously there’s always the caveat that the amount of money is going to be nowhere near enough to cover all the services that we would like to be tendering for.”
This week the group is looking at initial plans for new routes or changes to existing ones. Then they will finalise the plans, and ask bus companies to bid for the contracts to run the services, which begin in April next year.